Turkey forcibly deports 575 Syrians to SNA-held areas
TEL ABYAD, Syria (North Press) – Turkish authorities forcibly deported on Friday 575 Syrian refugees from Turkey to areas under its occupation in northern Syria.
The Turkish authorities deported the Syrians through Bab al-Hawa in Idlib Governorate and Tel Abyad in Raqqa Governorate.
The 575 deportees included women and children and they were handed over to the Turkish-backed armed opposition factions, aka the Syrian National Army (SNA), an administrative source said.
The source added that 190 of the deportees were sent to Tel Abyad in northern Syria to be investigated later.
Tel Abyad is a city that has been under the Turkish occupation since 2019 following the so-called “Peace Spring” military operation by the Turkish forces and the SNA factions.
The border crossings between Syria and Turkey witness deportations of Syrians on a daily basis under the pretext of violating asylum laws and failing to update their personal information regarding the Temporary Protection ID Card (kimlik).
Additionally, 385 deportees were handed over to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS, formerly al-Nusra Front) in Idlib area, according to the source.
The source indicated that the deportation process took place after confiscating all personal identification documents of the deportees by the Turkish authorities and obtaining their fingerprints and iris scans forcibly on the voluntary return papers.
According to sources from Tel Abyad, Bab al-Hawa, and Bab al-Salama – three Syrian border crossings under the Turkish occupation – the number of the deportees mounted 6,600 since the beginning of September.
Refugees in Turkey, particularly Syrians, are bearing the consequences of political divisions and tensions within Turkish parties. As a result of this political struggle, an anti-refugee discourse has become one of the outcomes of this political conflict.